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Tuesday 29 April 2014

Quiltmaker blog hop

I love blog hops.

Not just because you get sent to all the "official" blogs, but I love clicking on random comments for the posts.

You never know where you will end up!

Quilty Pleasures Blog Hop Has LOTS of giveaways.

Cheerio.

Sunday 27 April 2014

Wrestling with a monster

No matter how much free motion work you do, nothing really prepares you for wrestling with a big quilt.

I usually work on up to single bed size when doing free motion work. Even then I usually find ways to break the quilt doing into smaller sections to join together later when fully quilted.

Can't do that for my dragon and as she is queen sized....

Back to red-wine quilting for me. I do my best work when I have something that will stain horribly sitting beside the machine. Red wine has the added advantages of helping keep the old shoulders relaxed and after a few, I do a lot less unpicking (Fuck it, no one will see that, I'm not ripping it out!).

My least favourite job, burying ends
My dragon needs a name too. She is not a girly/princess dragon like the dragon in Shrek, nor is she an angry hoarder like Smaug.

She is more like Tintaglia from Robin Hobb's Liveship series. But she is the wrong colours.

She could be Fente, one of the young RainWild dragon queens from Dragon Haven. But what about other books/mythology? Lets make a shortlist.

Fente, from RainWild

Evelyn, just because

Path (a Pern dragon), ridden by Mirrim of Benden Weyr

Malachite or Olivine (for the shades of green in her)

Violet (for her wings)

Boudica, named for Queen Boudica of the Celts (a fairly kick-ass gal)

I'm leaning towards Fente. She is a young queen, and can be quite social and chatty with humans but other dragons piss her off, especially if they are beneath her physically or mentally. As such she has a wee bit of a temper on her.

Cheerio!

Monday 14 April 2014

Giveaway Winner

As promised, today is the day to do the giveaway draw for hitting 1000 page views for my little blog.

I had 4 people comment on my post:
1. AM
2. CH
3. LD
4. HB

So with the help of Random.org, our winner is....
Number 2 - Christine!

Congratulations Christine.  I will contact you to get your address and send you a lovely little squishy parcel.

Thursday 10 April 2014

Feeling like a mother hen watching her chicks

Had a fantastic meeting at the Wellington Quilt guild this evening. The lovely Anna Hicks was our guest speaker this month.

She is a lovely and talented young lady that works at one of the local craft stores and has just finished a degree in fashion and business. She has already been a finalist in the World of WearableArt (WOW) competition. She bought along her collection she created as part of her final assignments for her degree. They were all garments made from recycled fabrics sourced from Op-shops and attics and were absolutely fabulous!

My favourite was the jumpsuit made from an old and stained double wedding ring quilt that she over-dyed and re-worked.
Gorgeous!
But for me, the highlight of the night was definitely show and tell. This was the first Guild meeting after I ran my class 3 weeks ago. And there were a few familiar looking quilts....
Some that are still WIPs

Look look! They are finished already
I got some close ups too. This one is one of two. The maker has two daughters both celebrating birthdays soon so she used the blocks to make matching wall-hangings for them:
Pretty oriental fabrics with Chinese coins added
This one is still a WIP but nearly done. It looks so different in low-volume french blues:
Love the alternating plain blocks too
Fun and vibrant prints, perfect for any kid or kid-at-heart:
And this lady made this in the bigger size and already has plans to make it bigger again!


It is reminding me that I need to get off my butt and finish a few more of my WIPs - my patterns! My Etsy Shop is looking a little bare.

Cheerio.